The Three Investigators
I am often blamed for living in past, so much so, that even to the extent of ignorng the present altogether and worse, not looking to shaping up the future. In fact, more than half of my posts are about my past.
However, I take this as a compliment, and continue to be an unabashed past dreamer, so to speak. What to do, when after each passing day, my belief gets even stronger that somehow those were, indeed, the golden days of my life, where life, with all its imperfections, was perfect and that quality of life now is monotonically regressing.
In my convoluted opinion, Standard X Boards is a watershed event in our life, after which all our innocence is lost under the inexpedient rat race of careers, and expectation.
In the same light, today I am going to talk about the - The Three Investigators series novels.
One discovers them after one gets bored of Ma'm Enid Blyton's Famous Five series ( where almost till half of the book the four kids and the dog just keep doing their picnic, eating potato sandwiches, and scrambled eggs ) and before the teeny brawn of Franklin W Dixon's (which I later learnt was just a pen name) Hardy Boys series invariably gets at you, where there is a karate chop here, and a solar plexus punch there.
Might I also add, that in a ridiculous fit of desperation, I also tried a couple of Nancy Drews, which I discontinued in a great haste. This is not to say or do with male chauvinism of any sort, but just that they were just plain bad.
A gentleman called Sherlock Holmes from Baker Street, London, however was a class apart, and there is no age to discover and re-discover him. But more on him in some other post.
The Three Investigators series, which I had then erroneously assumed, was written by Alfred HitchHock, but my disappointment could not but have shown when I later learnt that it was rather written by one Roburt Arthur, who inorder to earn free publicity, used a rather convinient pen name. However, that took nothing out of these brilliantly crafted book series, in which three little boys solved some brain tickling puzzles and unravelled some real flabbergasting mysteries.
They were captained by a plump, but genius Jupiter Jones, who had won for 30 days the use of a Rolls Royce(with gold plated fittings, and an English chauffeur Worthington) after winning a local competetion. The competetion was about guessing the approximate number of stones kept in a jar, and Jupiter Jones was the closest. He was very good with measurement & calculations, and usually used long and complex sentences. He lived with his aunt Mathlida and Titius Jones, and during his free time helped them in running their junk yard.
Next one was tall and atheletic Pete Crenshaw. He was a reluctant detective, who tried to avoid trouble at any cost, but never with success. Brains were not his forte, but sense of dirction was. When ever, three investigators lost their way, Pete was the man to count upon.
Bob Andews was diminutive, studious kind, did most of the research for the team, and kept all the records. He worked part time in a library, and was rather enthusiastic for his appearance.
Together, they formed a formidable team, not to forget the sootradhar - Hector Sebastian an ex-detective-turned-writer who did the customary epilogue and prologue. He also published their stories, and usually at the end of the prologue, gived us a hint about the next oncoming mystery.
The Three investiagtors were headquarted deep inside the annals of Jupiter Jone's junykyard, deftly hidden far from the madding crowd. There were different ways of going inside it. Their motto was - We Investigate Anything! The most interesting part, however, were the puzzles. Every mystery had a riddle associated with it, and it was fun seeing it getting solved and reaching some treausre. The only thing which bothered me was that, though they were fairly young, none of the boys went to a school or college.
Aunt Mathlida was a formidable lady, with a large heart. She was present for the comic relief. When the trio were not solving a case, they were made work hard in her salvage yard, under her strict supervision. When the chauffeur - Worthington - was not around, the two Bavarian helpers of her aunt - Hans and Konrad, helped the boys around with the travelling.
Like in every one else's life, there was one grief in their life in the form of a boy called E. Skinner (aka Skinny) Norris. He was a nuisance, who cultivated deep jealousy against Jupiter. He was a thorn in their flesh, and would give them momentry setback in their pursuit of the case. Pete had reserved some really nice & nasty phrases for this character.
Another ingenius stuff I learned from these books was a funda called - Ghost To Ghost Hookup. If these kids wanted to find something - like a lost car in the town (which was called Rocky Beach, a place somewhere near Hollywood) - to locate it they would call 5 friends of theirs. Each friend will call 5 more in turn. This way they will cover the entire town in just a few hours.
I am not sure how many people remember, way late in 90s, when we used have these series of Ek Do Teen Chaar, Khel Khel Mein, there was another series which showed for a few months called - Super Six. Well it was nothing but a miserable rip off The Three Investigators.
At our school we were crazy for them. We were allowed to issue only two books per person per week but that was too less for our apetite for reading. Since these books were 160 odd pages in all, two early mornings and late nights were enough to get them through. Then we would exchange them amongst ourselves and proceed.
Unfortunately, all good things come to end, and soon all those 40 odd books were devoured.
Later in my life, when I tried re-exploring them, I found that these books have made themselves scarce from the book stores in India(at least Pune and Lucknow - the my India). In fact, I haven't seen them again at any book store since I left school, although those Enid Blytons are dutifully present in scores. The enquiry everywhere invariably provides the same answer each time - they are out of publication!
Can't be true, but everything else I said, I swear, is.
However, I take this as a compliment, and continue to be an unabashed past dreamer, so to speak. What to do, when after each passing day, my belief gets even stronger that somehow those were, indeed, the golden days of my life, where life, with all its imperfections, was perfect and that quality of life now is monotonically regressing.
In my convoluted opinion, Standard X Boards is a watershed event in our life, after which all our innocence is lost under the inexpedient rat race of careers, and expectation.
In the same light, today I am going to talk about the - The Three Investigators series novels.
One discovers them after one gets bored of Ma'm Enid Blyton's Famous Five series ( where almost till half of the book the four kids and the dog just keep doing their picnic, eating potato sandwiches, and scrambled eggs ) and before the teeny brawn of Franklin W Dixon's (which I later learnt was just a pen name) Hardy Boys series invariably gets at you, where there is a karate chop here, and a solar plexus punch there.
Might I also add, that in a ridiculous fit of desperation, I also tried a couple of Nancy Drews, which I discontinued in a great haste. This is not to say or do with male chauvinism of any sort, but just that they were just plain bad.
A gentleman called Sherlock Holmes from Baker Street, London, however was a class apart, and there is no age to discover and re-discover him. But more on him in some other post.
The Three Investigators series, which I had then erroneously assumed, was written by Alfred HitchHock, but my disappointment could not but have shown when I later learnt that it was rather written by one Roburt Arthur, who inorder to earn free publicity, used a rather convinient pen name. However, that took nothing out of these brilliantly crafted book series, in which three little boys solved some brain tickling puzzles and unravelled some real flabbergasting mysteries.
They were captained by a plump, but genius Jupiter Jones, who had won for 30 days the use of a Rolls Royce(with gold plated fittings, and an English chauffeur Worthington) after winning a local competetion. The competetion was about guessing the approximate number of stones kept in a jar, and Jupiter Jones was the closest. He was very good with measurement & calculations, and usually used long and complex sentences. He lived with his aunt Mathlida and Titius Jones, and during his free time helped them in running their junk yard.
Next one was tall and atheletic Pete Crenshaw. He was a reluctant detective, who tried to avoid trouble at any cost, but never with success. Brains were not his forte, but sense of dirction was. When ever, three investigators lost their way, Pete was the man to count upon.
Bob Andews was diminutive, studious kind, did most of the research for the team, and kept all the records. He worked part time in a library, and was rather enthusiastic for his appearance.
Together, they formed a formidable team, not to forget the sootradhar - Hector Sebastian an ex-detective-turned-writer who did the customary epilogue and prologue. He also published their stories, and usually at the end of the prologue, gived us a hint about the next oncoming mystery.
The Three investiagtors were headquarted deep inside the annals of Jupiter Jone's junykyard, deftly hidden far from the madding crowd. There were different ways of going inside it. Their motto was - We Investigate Anything! The most interesting part, however, were the puzzles. Every mystery had a riddle associated with it, and it was fun seeing it getting solved and reaching some treausre. The only thing which bothered me was that, though they were fairly young, none of the boys went to a school or college.
Aunt Mathlida was a formidable lady, with a large heart. She was present for the comic relief. When the trio were not solving a case, they were made work hard in her salvage yard, under her strict supervision. When the chauffeur - Worthington - was not around, the two Bavarian helpers of her aunt - Hans and Konrad, helped the boys around with the travelling.
Like in every one else's life, there was one grief in their life in the form of a boy called E. Skinner (aka Skinny) Norris. He was a nuisance, who cultivated deep jealousy against Jupiter. He was a thorn in their flesh, and would give them momentry setback in their pursuit of the case. Pete had reserved some really nice & nasty phrases for this character.
Another ingenius stuff I learned from these books was a funda called - Ghost To Ghost Hookup. If these kids wanted to find something - like a lost car in the town (which was called Rocky Beach, a place somewhere near Hollywood) - to locate it they would call 5 friends of theirs. Each friend will call 5 more in turn. This way they will cover the entire town in just a few hours.
I am not sure how many people remember, way late in 90s, when we used have these series of Ek Do Teen Chaar, Khel Khel Mein, there was another series which showed for a few months called - Super Six. Well it was nothing but a miserable rip off The Three Investigators.
At our school we were crazy for them. We were allowed to issue only two books per person per week but that was too less for our apetite for reading. Since these books were 160 odd pages in all, two early mornings and late nights were enough to get them through. Then we would exchange them amongst ourselves and proceed.
Unfortunately, all good things come to end, and soon all those 40 odd books were devoured.
Later in my life, when I tried re-exploring them, I found that these books have made themselves scarce from the book stores in India(at least Pune and Lucknow - the my India). In fact, I haven't seen them again at any book store since I left school, although those Enid Blytons are dutifully present in scores. The enquiry everywhere invariably provides the same answer each time - they are out of publication!
Can't be true, but everything else I said, I swear, is.
Labels: Books, Memories, The Three Investigators
posted by Unknown at 11:02 PM
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